James Harden Hasn't Quite Perfected Offensive Basketball, But It's Close

James Harden notched his first triple-double of the season on Wednesday in a Rockets win over the San Antonio Spurs. Harden finished with 24 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds. Considering that was against Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs, I think we can discuss the fact that Harden is pretty close to perfecting offensive basketball.

This was just the latest in a string of absurd stat lines that includes 15 assists in 4 of his last 5 games. Harden leads the league in assists with 13 a game and is 4th in scoring with 30.6 a night. Harden has started the season on a LeBron-level of near-basketball-perfection. Looking at his stats right now is an absolute joy.

His one downfall this season has been his league-leading 45 turnovers (tied with Russell Westbrook), but that number should be expected when you’ve got a 33.8% usage rate (4th). And because he’s racking up so many assists in Mike D’Antoni’s system, he still has a 2.31 assist-to-turnover ratio. That’s pretty good. And he’s shooting career-highs in FG and 3pt FG percentages right now. His offense is so good right now that defense and turnovers don’t matter because the Rockets are 5-3 and so far, it’s working.